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Dreamcast GD-ROM issues

Re: Dreamcast GD-ROM issues

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 10:56 pm

by ArugulaZ

Welp, I took the Nestea plunge. Hopefully I'll be getting the GD-EMU in another month, maybe less.

So can I ask a few questions about this? Is a shroud/tray necessary, and if so, where's a cheap place to find one? Also, I've heard there's a drop in voltage because the optical drive is gone. Some people replace the power supply entirely, or remove a voltage regulator, or stick a resistor between two of the power pins, or do absolutely nothing at all. What's my best bet here? Kind of leaning toward the resistor trick.

Re: Dreamcast GD-ROM issues

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 1:22 am

by nightrnr

Cool! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it when your unit arrives.Been meaning to get a tray for my GDEMU. It's not strictly necessary, but can definitely help with airflow.Looking at this one:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Dreamcast ... Swj5BcOPOT I guess it depends on how hot your unit runs. Mine has been fine so far, but I've really only used it in smaller doses (usually less than an hour sessions). My nephews took it for a good 2 hours or so once though.

Hmm, I had to have had some long gameplay logged in PSO though, as one of the 1st things I did when I installed mine was to continue my save and finally finish the game.

The power supply I may continue to leave alone (but then I have the luxury of a couple backup systems for parts if something burns out). Feel free to get other opinions on that though. I'm not sure how many of us have a GDEMU here.

So for my part, my Dreamcast is fine with the bare install.

Re: Dreamcast GD-ROM issues

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 5:07 am

by ArugulaZ

(Jacques Cousteau voice)"Three weeks later."

The GDEMU arrived early in the week, with a tray arriving on Friday. This was not fun to set up, at least at first. My Dreamcast would only recognize the device half the time, and when it did work it would crash shortly after the game started. Eventually, it went straight into the Twilight Zone, playing half of the Dreamcast startup jingle. You know, the part where the wind blows, not the plinking of the orange ball. Turns out this is really creepy without hearing the ball bounce across the screen.

I thought the GDEMU was supremely messed up, but no, it was the Dreamcast that was having problems. So I unplugged the power supply, took it off the motherboard pins, and cleaned them briskly with a Q-tip drenched in rubbing alcohol. Boom, tough actin' Tinactin, it started working again. I had cleaned it once before a couple of months earlier, and didn't think it needed it again so soon, but feh, shows what I know.

Anyway, the GDEMU works now. I couldn't get it working while in the tray, but without it, the device functions as it should. If you installed GD-MENU on your SD card, you can select the other games with a handy menu. Then when you pick a game and start it, the system resets and plays it, just as if a disc was in the drive. Nifty. I gave it about two hours of testing, running attract modes and playing a few games too. It's pretty convenient, but fighting to get the GDEMU started left a bitter taste in my mouth that counterbalanced the thrill of using it. Still, the Dreamcast IS working, and it's as much as I could reasonably expect. Maybe I'll appreciate it more once the frustration subsides.

Re: Dreamcast GD-ROM issues

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 12:26 pm

by nightrnr

Yeah, I had to clean my pins too (possibly twice, like you). Haven't had to do it again since though.

I also got a cheap tray recently and it doesn't fit mine either (may try to cut it so it fits properly sometime).

Otherwise, I think I've had learning pains for all my digital solutions. It's just how it goes.

Another issue I have come across with GDemu is that it doesn't always like controller adapters. Some games refuse to boot or don't register inputs with my Innovation PS2/Saturn adapter.

Then there is the occasional weirdness that only seems to affect me, like on Virtua Fighter 3TB, selecting Jeffrey crashes to menu. The game plays fine otherwise (you can fight against him in arcade mode) and no one else has this issue. Tried 3 different images of the game (one of them gdi), same results. No such problem on my USB-GDROM.

GD-emu works perfect otherwise. It's still a little picky on image format, but plays almost everything I throw at it (including a self copied Pier Solar, although I had to update 1st, I sure you know not to do that with clones). GDmenu even patches a few incompatible games to run on VGA (not all mind you, there's still like a dozen that I wish worked in HD, mostly certain fighters).

I guess I'm just used to troubleshooting; I always expect a few hiccups. Glad you got yours functioning though.